Filmwasters
Which Board? => Main Forum => : This-is-damion March 13, 2007, 10:52:05 AM
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cant belive it - just taken a call from my favourite photo lab..colin alfords in birmingham...they have just got into administration.
in business for 36 years, im gutted! used to be one of those places where they knew your name, appreciated your custom, would cross process at no extra charge and so on. I used to love popping in, i think they saw me as a bit of an oddity (no comments please) 99% of thier customers were wedding/commercial pin sharp professionals, i used to fall in the door clutching cheap russian crap and they always took in interest in what i was up to. They kept a copy of the TC book we did a few years back on the counter.....the wife used to hate going there and you could never get out the place quickly..... Poor man sounded broken, understandably of course.
he explained that he was set up mainly for commercial customers and could turn round massive orders in a matter of hours, of course with the onset of digital his client base has shrunk considerably. he had got a lot more normal punters like me through the door and was trying to downsize the premises to compensate but couldnt do it quickly enough.
A great loss and another reason to support your local community and suppliers.
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that is very sad Damion - and I think it's happening all over the country too.
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It's a hell of a shame when a good company goes to the wall. :(
I use a lab in Birmingham when I (rarely) do colour stuff. I've always had good results from them and their prices and service have also been great.
Metro Colour Labs
Unit 2
Summer Hill Industrial Estate
Goodman Street
Birmingham
B1 2SS
0121 212 3334
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A great loss and another reason to support your local community and suppliers.
Damn that. Such is life in the modern age. Progress marches on...
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I too saw the loss of a good local lab a few years back.
It was one of the neatest 1 hour labs you could find. They had an old Konica minilab. The staff was very friendly and they did mostly real estate pictures before every realtor turned digital.
You could talk to the people who printed your photos and tell them exactly what you wanted; a rare commodity nowadays.
One of the coolest services they offered was what I call the "about 1 hour" job. If you didn't need your images in exactly 1 hour, they would take extra time to make them really good. You just had to ask them and they would do what you wanted done to your prints at no extra charge.
I remember one day, I was in a real rush to get a film developed during my lunch. I needed only 4 prints in a hurry. The guy processed my film while I ate my sandwich over the counter and gave me the 4 highly needed prints in record time. I managed to get back to work before the boss came in :) They saved my butt this time and would have done so every time I needed it.
I really miss their service.
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Sorry D. :(
That happened to one of my labs, but then the owner opted to open a small lab of his own for speciality clients.
And he's doing well for himself minus the rent, employees, etc.
Maybe there's a chance the owner of your lab will opt to do the same.
Sad what digital has done to the industry. :(
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Damn that. Such is life in the modern age. Progress marches on...
As the great operation ivy said....a progression to ignorance.......
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and cheers for the tip about Metro, was just telling Ed earlier not sure where to turn now...the other one i knew of is Peter Gaffneys, but will give Metro a whirl first
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That's terrible news. It would be nice to drop along and get a few photos of the owner and premises to have a record to remember the people involved.I am sure they would be pleased.
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Hi Damion,
I think you'll find that Metro is Peter Gaffney's! :D
A rose by any other name... and all that!
All the best,
Frank
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Bummer. I feel your pain.
I went through the same grieving process about a year ago, when my funky commercial/advertising E6 (mainly) + C41 + digital print any size + great scanning kinda place disappeared. It waas soo cool. You always felt part of their extended family and any problem you had was no problem to them at all- only a chance to do something exciting or different for a friend.
(sigh)
They ''merged'' with the big faceless place down the road which used to mainly service the wedding/portrait crowd.
I'm over my feeling of desolation and loss by now, of course.
Really, I am. Honest. (sigh)